Hurricane Hugo Research Paper

Hurricane Hugo, one of the strongest hurricanes in South Carolina’s history, originated from a wave that moved west off of Africa’s coastline on September 9, 1989. Throughout the night and into the morning of September 10, Hugo had been classified as a tropical depression. As Hugo moved across the warm waters of the Atlantic it gained more and more strength. It wasn’t until September 14th that Hugo gained enough strength to be classified as a hurricane. On September 15th, Hugo turned west-north and began to pick up pace and strength, then became a category 5 hurricane with top speeds of almost 160 mph. Hugo began to weaken on September 16th, when it reached the islands of Guadeloupe and Montserrat. Hugo traveled over the U.S. Virgin islands on the morning of September 17th, and later that day over Puerto Rico. It was Puerto Rico’s high terrain that significantly weakened the hurricane.Throughout the next few days, Hugo’s maximum sustained winds fell to 105 mph and it began to reach the Carolina’s.
Maximum wind speeds escalated to around 120 mph and hit near Charleston at 138 mph. Hugo continued to move throughout South Carolina, hitting Sumter, Camden, and then Lancaster. By 3 a.m. September 22nd Hugo had gone through South Carolina and come into North Carolina. Hugo had reached Charlotte.With a 20 foot storm tide and winds measured 200 miles inland, Hugo dealt substantial damage to the Carolina’s. In many places such as Berkeley and Dorchester counties many homes were left damaged and destroyed. Uprooted trees across Charlotte and the surrounding areas crashed into homes and power lines were knocked down. These conditions left many people without power or homes to live in. Hurricane Hugo took the lives of 107 people and is recognized as one of the worst the carolinas have